2015 Hope Watermelon Festival

Click
here to buy tickets for the Liverpool Legends on Friday
August 7th and Buddy Jewell/Sammy Kershaw August 8th at the
Hope Watermelon Festival

HOPE,
AR – The Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of Commerce has
partnered with the UACCH Foundation to bring headlining
entertainer Sammy Kershaw to the 39th Annual Hope Watermelon
Festival. Buddy Jewell, “Nashville Star” winner and Gold
record artist will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. to open for
headliner Sammy Kershaw, who will take the stage at 8:30
p.m. on Saturday, August 8th. Kershaw will be performing his
number one hit “She Don’t Know She’s Beautiful” along with
several of his 10 top ten hits. Throughout his 20 plus years
in country music he has had over 25 singles that have been
in the top forty on the charts.

Jewell’s self-titled
Columbia Records released at #1 on the Billboard Top Country
Album charts. It was certified Gold and garnered two
back-to-back top five hits with “Sweet Southern Comfort” and
“Help Pour Out the Rain”. Both tunes have certified 1
million radio plays.

For the first time, this year’s
festival concert will also include a Friday night concert
featuring the Beatle’s Tribute Band, Liverpool Legends. The
band will perform on the CMC Steel Products Stage in Legion
Field at 7:30 p.m. Friday, August 7th. Liverpool Legends
Beatles Tribute band, are four talented musicians and actors
who were hand-picked by Louise Harrison – sister of the late
George Harrison of The Beatles. “Liverpool Legends Beatles
Tribute Band present the very best portrayal of The Beatles
that I have ever seen,” says Harrison. Headlining their own
production in Branson since 2006, Liverpool Legends have
been voted Best New Show, Best Band, and Best Overall Show.

Tickets go on sale Friday, June 12th, with a special
Early Bird one-day discounted ticket. Early bird tickets
will be sold at the Hope-Hempstead County Chamber of
Commerce from 9:00a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Early Bird tickets
are $10 for adults and $6 for children ages 4-10. After this
one day sale, advanced tickets for Saturday night will be
$12 for adults; day of show tickets will be $20. Children’s
tickets will be $6 day of the show. A Friday and Saturday
Concert Combination General Admission Ticket or the “FAST”
ticket can be bought for $15

Mark your calendars and
stop by the chamber to get your concert tickets.

For
more information about the concert, contact the UACCH
Foundation at 870-722-8516.

Watermelon Festival Car Show Flyer and Entry Form

2015 Little Miss Watermelon

Arm Wrestling

Watermelons have long
been a calling card for the City of Hope. The
Festival itself dates back to the mid-1920's when
the city's Chamber of Commerce staged a one-day
Festival each year. The early Watermelon Festivals
bear little resemblance to the recent ones. During
the 1920's-era festivals, citizens served ice-cold
watermelon to passengers on the many trains which
stopped in Hope. The festival also featured a
"Watermelon Queen" pageant and a large parade. These
early festivals brought upwards of 20,000 people in
a day to Hope. The end to the first festivals came
about 1931 when the city, suffering from the effects
of the depression, could no longer accommodate the
crowds.

Hope celebrated its centennial
in 1975. The event was a rousing success and local residents
started thinking about another celebration. Local promoter
and newspaper man C.M. "Pod" Rogers organized a new
Watermelon Festival in 1977. The success of this first
reorganized festival led to the event gaining annual status.
Since the 1970's, the festival has continued to grow,
attracting approximately 50,000 visitors to Hope over a
four-day period.

The modern day Hope
Watermelon festival features numerous activities
including Arts & Crafts, food, entertainment and other
family-oriented activities. Nearly 300 Arts and Crafts
booths will be set up at the festival grounds.

The Arts and Crafts come from a 6 state area. The festival
also features dozens of food booths, serving everything
from burgers and corn dogs to pork rinds and
"chicken-on-a-stick".

Local civic clubs also
hold dinners featuring such down-home fare as
locally grown smoked chicken and golden fried
catfish. The Watermelon Festival features a variety
of musical talent each year. What else can you do at the festival?
You can participate in a 5K race, take in a dog
show, enter the "Watermelon Idol" talent contest or
play "hillbilly horseshoes".

The Watermelon Olympics
will also be held, pitting local teams against each
other in such events as the melon-toss. There's also
an antique car show, an antique engine show
featuring old steam engines, and a volleyball
tournament. The festival also features a number of
melon-oriented events such as the seed-spitting
contest and the Watermelon eating contest And what
of the famous Hope melons? Those attending will be
able to see some of the bigger specimens of the
year, some tipping the scales at close to 200 pounds.
Ice-cold watermelon will be sold by the slice for
$1.25 each day and numerous melon growers will have
whole melons on sale at the festival for visitors to
take home.

World Champion Melon Grower
Ivan Bright

Just because the
Watermelon Festival ended in 1930 didn't mean an end
to the actual growing of the melons in
Hempstead County, Arkansas. A local farmer
named O.D. Middlebrooks of the Patmos
Community near Hope produced a 195 pound
melon in 1935. The record stood for 44 years
until Ivan and Lloyd Bright produced a 200
pound melon in 1979. The Bright family grew
a second world's record watermelon in 1985. The melon weighed in at 260
pounds and held the world's record
(according to Guinness) for several years
until a 262 pound melon grown in Tennessee
took top honors.

2005 brought a severe drought which
caused southwest Arkansas farmers much
grief. One notable exception was the
watermelon farmers. The drought meant
sweeter melons for the producers of table
melons. The drought also allowed Lloyd
Bright to better control the moisture he
delivered to his melons. This allowed
for a larger than usual crop of giant
melons. Word got out in late summer
Bright might have another record.
Immediately following the Watermelon
Festival of 2005, Bright alerted the Chamber of Commerce of the
possibility of an exceptional melon in his
patch. On Labor Day week-end, a group of
family, friends, and media met in the Bright
patch to pick that melon. It was taken to
the Farm Store in Hope and weighed on
certified scales. The entire process was
documented and the melon was certified at
268.8 pounds. In spring 2006, the Guinness
Book of World Records certified Lloyd Bright's 268.8 pound melon as the world's
largest.